Friday, September 10, 2021

Fun with Music

This year Zac and I are homeschooling for first grade. It will be my first year ever teaching Music and it's an enormous stretch and challenge for me. But, every new subject is a chance to take some risks and have some fun! And I know enough to know that General Music (at least when I was in elementary school) begins with the musical instrument families. That feels very doable!

Here is a list I'm compiling of resources:


A House Filled with Music

by Margret Rettich

Music Maestro vintage board game

Musical Instrument three part cards Set 1 and Set 2
Montessori Print Shop on TpT


The Philharmonic Gets Dressed

by Karla Kuskin


Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin

by Lloyd Moss


I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello

by Barbara S. Garriel


Ty's One-Man Band

by Mildred Pitts Walter


Geraldine, the Music Mouse

by Leo Lionni
flute


Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music

by Margarita Engle
drum


Double Bass Blues

by Andrea J. Loney
double bass


The Bat Boy and His Violin

by Gavin Curtis
violin


Play Me A Story: Nine Tales About Musical Instruments

by Naomi Adler
pipe, fiddle, harp, flute, drum, singing drum, lyre, tiktiri, didgeridoo, balalaika


The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori & the Invention of the Piano

by Elizabeth Rusch
piano


Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids

by Camille Saint-Saëns


Can You Hear It?

by William Lach


88 Instruments

by Chris Barton
best for... introducing a child to his/her own instrument

it is also really fun to get a set of keys which have been removed from a piano and put them all in number order!


I LOVE the idea of tying music in with Form Drawing, especially with running forms. Joyful loops and spirals make me think of jazz, so I think we will begin there. I like the idea of showing that even adults play with music, before we get into working specifically with an instrument. (I have a Choroi pentatonic flute and pentatonic glockenspiel. Zac is also really interested in my teardrop lap dulcimer, so I am hoping to find him a teacher for that.)

I highly recommend David Darcy's Playing and Teaching the Pentatonic Flute and Pentatonic Recorder! It's available at A Child's Dream.


In no particular order, some resources about jazz. I've purchased all of these books and am really excited about reading them! I'd also like to begin putting them in chronological order and choosing some music to highlight.



The 5 O'Clock Band

by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews
modern book, really brings to life the culture of New Orleans

    good follow-ups would be:
    find the city of New Orleans on a map
    take a riverboat cruise
    listen to "When the Saints Go Marching In"
    read a book about Louis Armstrong
    eat some of the foods mentioned in the book (red beans and rice, andouille sausage, collard greens, okra with tomatoes)



Trombone Shorty

by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews
trombone


The Greentail Mouse

by Leo Lionni (Mardi Gras)


Jazz

by Walter Dean Myers
really useful introduction & timeline


Freedom in Congo Square

by Carole Boston Weatherford


This Jazz Man

by Karen Ehrhard
EXCELLENT

    Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong
    (1900-1971)

    Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
    (1878-1949)

    Luciano "Chano" Pozo y González
    (1915-1948)

    Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
    (1899-1974)

    Charlie "Bird" Parker
    (1920-1955)

    Art "Blu" Blakey
    (1919-1990)

    John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie
    (1917-1993)

    Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller
    (1904-1943)

    Charles "Baron" Mingus
    (1922-1979)



Just a Lucky So and So: The Story of Louis Armstrong

by Lesa Cline-Ransome


Dizzy

by Jonah Winter
Dizzy Gillespie

    trumpet
    played with Charlie Parker (saxophone) and Thelonius Monk (piano)


Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
sang with Dizzy Gillespie


Little Melba and Her Big Trombone

by Katheryn Russell-Brown
Melba Doretta Liston
trombone
played with Dizzy Gillespie


Bird & Diz

by Gary Golio
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie


Charlie Parker Played Be Bop

by Chris Raschka
saxophone


Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound

by Kathleen Cornell Berman
Miles Davis
trumpet
played with Charlie Parker


Mysterious Thelonius

by Chris Raschka
Thelonius Monk
piano


Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

by Carole Boston Weatherford
John Coltrane
saxophone
played with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis


John Coltrane's Giant Steps

by Chris Raschka


Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra

by Andrea Davis Pinkney


Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills

by Renée Watson
Black Beauty by Duke Ellington is a tribute to her


The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue

by Suzanne Slade
Rhapsody in Blue debut was in 1924


Jazz Age Josephine

by Jonah Winter


Oskar and the Eight Blessings

by Richard and Tanya Simon
William James "Count" Basie
1938


When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson

Pam Muñoz Ryan
April 9, 1939

Denied A Stage, She Sang For A Nation
April 9, 2014 - NPR


Other thoughts:


The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art

by Barb Rosenstock


The Maestro Plays

by Bill Martin
best for... a Grammar lesson (adverbs)


Because

by Mo Willems
best for... a Grammar lesson (conjunctions)


Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker

by Patricia Hruby Powell
this is really lovely but it's not a picture book
best for... an older student learning about biographies


A Song Is Born (1948)

first hour only, through the end of the "Longhair Jam Session"

A Song Is Born (1947)
Library of Congress


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

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